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- Volume 1, Issue 3, 2014
Dance, Movement & Spiritualities - Volume 1, Issue 3, 2014
Volume 1, Issue 3, 2014
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‘Dark am I, yet lovely’: Tracing diabolical evil and femininities in gothic fusion tribal belly dance
More LessAbstractWhile belly dance as a dance genre has been recognized for its ‘ambivalence’ in terms of its empowerment of women’s identities and body types and essentializing of narrowly constructed femininities, it has nonetheless in the research literature generally been regarded positively in its influence on women’s spiritualities, corporalities, sexualities and overall well-being. But what about its attraction and allure in its ‘darker’ forms, as a way of empowering women, especially older women, and enabling them to negotiate and traverse a range of difficult, deviant, damaged and/ or otherwise negative experiences? Based primarily on a participant observation of a six-week series of dance workshops held in the north of England and drawing on my other experiences as a dancer of other belly dance forms, this article references Julia Kristeva’s psychoanalytic theory of horror and the monstrous feminine to explore the meanings, experiences and performances of ‘darkness’ in what is belly dance’s darkest genre, Gothic Fusion Belly Dance (GFBD).
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Spirituality in Aurelia Baumgartner’s Tanzphilosophie
More LessAbstractAgainst the background of a non-religious understanding of spirituality in the context of consciousness studies, the article analyses the dance practice, understood as embodied philosophy, of Aurelia Baumgartner. The article considers her inspiration, intuitive collaboration with other artists, the concepts of femininity, beauty, and non-linearity central to her practice and thinking, her biography (in terms of training; a pivotal, life-changing, crossroads she encountered at the age of 14; and her heritage), and cultural and philosophical contextualizations.
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Inclusiveness through art films in Telugu: A modern to postmodern analysis of K. Viswanath’s films
More LessAbstractThis present study attempts to situate the themes of Kasinadhuni Viswanath’s (popularly known as K.Viswanath in Telugu film industry) musicals in modernist and postmodernist cultural perspectives in an effort to show that art forms such as music, song and dance are of immense help for a silent and non-violent social revolution that subsumes the ‘inclusiveness’ besides ushering in harmony in society. Viswanath’s films are synonymous with the repertory of music and dance forms in India. Known for his artistry in combining music, song and dance together, Viswanath’s reputed and award winning film – Sankarabharanam (1979) – has not only won national recognition as the best entertaining wholesome popular film, but also offered explorable alternatives to eliminate social evils such as economic and caste disparities, and the misconceptions such as, western music is superior over eastern music, western life is greater than traditional Indian life, etc. Viswanath is perhaps one of the rarest directors of the Indian film industry who dared to produce a different genre of films, both in Telugu and Hindi, combining music and dance forms against the background of social or traditional issues for national integration (e.g. Saptapadi 1981). Using the moving image and analysis of Kracauer, this study heuristically offers evidence to show how his musicals have effectively used a ‘social model’ akin to a ‘Gandhian model’ through a unique combination of signs, symbols and philosophical ideas of traditional Indian culture with the art forms – music, song and dance styles. Further the study endeavours to show how Viswanath develops conflicts first at the modernist level between the Proppian elements in his plots in the narratives, and how through a deft manoevouring of the narratives these conflicts culminate into solutions suggestive of ‘inclusiveness’.
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Anna Halprin’s Parades and Changes: A harbinger of ritual transformations
More LessAbstractThis article examines the scholarly discourse on Anna Halprin’s rituals and her own use of the word ‘ritual’ in historical archives to define what determines a work as ritual. The hallmarks of ritual in both discourses include efficacious intention, audience-as-witness, transformation of space, and performers’ investment of deeper meaning in movement. In Halprin’s seminal Parades and Changes, her dancers operated in a liminal space – transitioning from what was previously acceptable to what would become acceptable for performance through embodied performativity of the nude subject. What the performance world accepted as dance changed drastically once Halprin recontextualized the nude body in performance. By its use of these hallmarks, it is clear that Parades and Changes illustrates Halprin’s early use of ritual, was transformational within theatrical contexts, and was a harbinger of the rituals to come in her later works.
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Professorial and academic reflections 2: Carla Walter interviewed by Amanda Williamson
More LessAbstractDr Carla Walter recently published her book ‘Dance, Consumerism and Spirituality’ with Palgrave Macmillan. It was fascinating to me that both her book and my co-edited book, ‘Dance Somatics and Spiritualities: Contemporary Sacred Narratives’ arrived on the bookshelf at around the same – very different, yet complimentary texts, expanding the spiritual horizon in Dance Studies in the contemporary milieu. Here we interweave some ideas and we explore together aspects of her book, and some further issues in relation to dance and spirituality as a developing area of research and teaching in higher education.
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Book Reviews
Authors: Kimerer L LaMothe and Maria Luise OberemAbstractSeiki Jutsu: The Practice of Non-Subtle En ergy Medicine, B. KEENEY AND H. KEENEY (2014), Rochester, VT: Healing Arts Press, 216 pp., ISBN 9781620554326, p/bk, $16.95
Dance, Somatics and Spiritualities: Contemporary Sacred Narratives, A. Williamson (ed.) (2014), Bristol: Intellect, 489 pp., print, ISBN: 978-1-78320-178-5, £47.00
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